Widows: The Dejected class in our society
Rayees Ahmad Kumar
World Widow Day works to encourage action in achieving full rights of widows, highlighting the need for more research and statistics into violence, discrimination and poverty suffered by widows and develop policies and programmes to address their problems.
The ultimate goal of the day is to develop resources and policy to empower widows and allow them to create a life for themselves and their children following the death of their husband and ending a cycle of poverty and abuse.
Women find themselves left in poverty when their husband dies. They also find themselves denied of inheritance and land rights, evicted from their homes, ostracized and abused. The children of widows also often find themselves affected, withdrawn from school and more susceptible to abuse, especially in the case of girls.
Every year on June 23rd world widow day is observed with the only aim to raise awareness about the human rights violation that widows face in many countries of the globe following the death of their spouses.
In Kashmir the observance of this day reminds us the pathetic condition of this depressed class of society who have become widows due to one or the other reasons. Here the reasons and causes are many. The conflict zone and the war torn state of valley has left thousands of women alone by either killing their husbands directly or first arresting them or reporting them missing in custody.
According to some reports there are over 32000 widows and 97000 orphans in violence battered Jammu and Kashmir. The unending conflict in this region is further making things worse for the vulnerable sections of society. The widows and orphans whose numbers have drastically increased since 1989, have not received adequate help from the government or NGOs.
Neither the government nor the NGOs have been able to help them in an organised and systematic manner. The tragic aspect of the situation is that the state has not adopted any specific social policy and programme in this regard. Their problems accumulate and intensify day by day. Individuals, society, community and the state must share responsibilities in terms of programmes.
In addition to the large chunk of female population who have become widows during the thirty years of armed conflict in the region, there are further thousands of women who have been referred to as half widows.
The term ‘Half-Widow’ is exclusively addressed to the Kashmiri women whose husbands have been missing for decades. Hundreds of the husbands disappeared during the years of conflict. The result is that their wives find always themselves in mental trauma because they don’t know whether their husbands are alive or not.
They always wait for their husbands, expect their return to their homes but in the end find themselves disappointed when for years together after eagerly waiting for them they fail to have a glimpse of their loved ones. Most of the widows haven’t re-married due to the doubt about their husband’s fate. The failure of the society and government to help women whose husbands, brothers, sons have disappeared during years of conflict in valley has compounded their sufferings. Along with the plight of thousands of orphans, the children of half widows who are affected deeply by the conflict, adds much to the crises. Most of the widows are suffering from depression, phobia, traumatic disorders and emotional instability.
Now more than ever this day is an opportunity for action towards achieving full rights and recognition for widows. To provide them a fair share of their inheritance, pension and social protection, decent work, education and training opportunities. Empowering widows to support themselves also means addressing social stigmas.
At Mohalla and village level also the well off persons must come forward, form welfare committees at their respective villages. These committees should collect from affluent members of the society as per their economic strength, donations both in the form of money and materials needed by them. Then distribute it among them so that this most neglected class doesn’t feel alienated and instead a sense of strength and hope prevails among them.
